Developed in 1935 by William Picken Alexander (1905-93), the Alexander Performance Scale Test was designed to discover which type of secondary school a child should go to. The Education Act 1944 made education free up to the age of 15 and created three types of school: grammar schools with an academic focus, technical schools which focused on learning a trade and secondary moderns for children not placed at either of the other two types.

The kit had three tests: the Passalong Test, Kohs’ Block Design Test, and the Cube Construction Test where children made patterns of coloured blocks according to the illustrations while being timed. The 11 plus exam was also used to determine which type of school a child should go to.